Obamacare Premiums Set to Soar in 2019

[appalachiablue]

Source: Reuters

Brace yourselves -- it looks like Obamacare premiums could jump by double digits again next year.

Insurers in several states have requested large rate hikes for 2019, with many pointing to steps taken by President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress as the main reasons why.

New York insurers want to hike rates by 24%, on average, while carriers in Washington are looking for a 19% average premium increase. In Maryland, CareFirst is asking for an average 18.5% rate bump for its HMO plans and a 91% spike for its PPO policies (which have far fewer enrollees), while Kaiser Permanente wants to boost premiums by more than 37%, on average.

Many insurers cite two key drivers of the increases: Congress' elimination of the penalty for the individual mandate -- which requires nearly all Americans to have coverage or pay up --and the Trump administration's expected expansion of two types of health plans that don't have to adhere to Obamacare's regulations.

Health insurance providers are now making decisions about market participation and pricing for the 2019 plan year in a market that continues to face uncertainty and instability challenges," America's Health Insurance Plans, an industry group, wrote in a recent report...More...


Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/obamacare-premiums-set-to-soar-in-2019/ar-AAyldXN

---

*TO ADD:

*Oct. 16, 2017: "Trump: There is No Such Thing as ObamaCare Anymore,"* The Hill:

"President Trump on Monday blasted ObamaCare, saying it is "dead" and finished. ObamaCare is finished. It's dead. It's gone, Trump said during a Cabinet meeting.

You shouldn't even mention it, it's gone. There is no such thing as ObamaCare anymore. It is a — and I said this years ago — it's a concept that couldn't have worked."

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/355658-trump-there-is-no-such-thing-as-obamacare-anymore

Trump's remarks clip.

[turbinetree]

1. How to bankrupt citizens if they don't have health care......................and they get sick......

fucking greed...................and right wing congress, who doesn't give a shit, except lobbyist giving them money to make sure human beings can't afford health care...................but they get their health care paid for by taxpayers


MEDICARE for ALL....................

[TeamPooka]

2. It's Trumpcare now since he changed the recipe. Trump is in charge of Americans healthcare

remind everyone this

[sakabatou]

3. Republicans want Americans to die

[area51]

5. THIS. n/t

[jalan48]

4. Insurance Company Healthcare.

[SergeStorms]

6. Insurance premiums always have double digit increases.

That's not news. I've been on Medicare for 18 years now, and I've had supplemental insurance for about 10 of those years. There hasn't been a single year when premiums haven't increased over 15%, with the "winner" being a 55% increase in a single year!

Shopping around for supplemental insurance each year is a gigantic pain in the ass, but it still beats the alternative of having no coverage.

[Hortensis]

10. Yes, it is, tho. Obamacare was doing a good job of slowing

medical inflation -- as intended -- as it lowered costs. The program was on track to over time eliminate those unsustainable, literally killer, double-digit increases.

The Republican congress couldn't destroy the ACA outright as intended, but they were able to do great damage, including destroying its funding mechanism, leading to the increases showing in these figures. And it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

People who get insurance through their work will see lower increases, but every year more employers stop offering workplace insurance. It's costing them too much and they want out.

Btw, I get Medicare now also and don't have to be frightened by increases in the individual market next year. Its guaranteed coverage is a great comfort, and my supplement is significantly less expensive than my insurance before I qualified.

But comfort-generated complacency would be a horrible mistake. The same people determined to destroy the ACA are also determined to destroy Medicare. They're already doing serious damage, mainly through "tax reform." Last I read, next will Paygo will automatically transfer something like $28 billion out of Medicare to pay new expenses created to drain Medicare, including to meet our new annual payment on the $1.6 trillion we now "owe" the very wealthy. Paygo only transfers one way; no matter how much Medicare needs the money, every year the law mandates these automatic transfers out. Increases to Medicare premiums won't begin to be able to cover needs, as intended. Coverages will have to be cut, and premiums for supplemental insurance will also go up. Oh, and repeal of the ACA's individual mandate means Medicare costs will go up -- as intended.

These are just part of the beginning. If they have their way, we both will be free of Medicare AND of the need to shop for free-market insurance because we won't be able to afford any, unless of course our children help pay for it. Some families would empty their own retirement and college savings to get medical care for relatives, but most in short order couldn't even if they wanted to.

We The People wouldn't stand for it? How about if they got another Gorsuch on SCOTUS and these big social programs were declared unconstitutional? That'd be fixed eventually, but we'd both likely be dead before then.

If the Republicans keep control of the senate in November, they will fill the next SCOTUS vacancy(ies).

Factors Influencing
2019 Premiums in
the Individual Market

https://www.ahip.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/FactorsInfluencing2019Premiums_IssueBrief_2.7.18.pdf

[appalachiablue]

17. Impt. points & factors, and the prospective reality. Thanks. So many Americans

are completely unaware of this, living and getting by day to day but not receiving or seeking truthful news.
Sorry to say, I have a few close ones in this category, educated and intelligent people but not big internet users esp. in the little free time they have with busy lives and demanding work schedules. Even the basics, they really don't want to take it in, it's a turn off. Nothing you can do.
These system changes are part of the the plan for decades, and are clearly headed to completion, unless stopped. And somehow the political apathy and brainwashing in the US has to end.

For how many years have people like Michael Moore with his films, and others tried to inform Americans that corporate, bankrupting health insurance doesn't exist in Canada, Europe and other countries.

[Hortensis]

19. +100. Seems few people, including (perhaps especially?)

conservatives, really in their gut believe our government would hurt them or just let them die without aid, no matter who they elect. I've seen this in discussions. It's just not a concern. This is America. A safety net has always been there, and even when leaders promise to take it away, somehow they can't imagine that means taken away from them.

For the first time in all history, people are living for years and decades with chronic illnesses that once killed fairly quickly. For the first time in history, people are normally living decades after their productive, profit-creating years are over.

Who carries right wing arguments for cutting taxes and eliminating our means of sharing costs of medical care out to their natural conclusions? To realize that limiting access to healthcare means that a "cleansing" of many of society's uninsured chronically ill people and elderly ex-workers would be that natural conclusion?

Changing the meaning of "entitled" from vested taxpayers to lazy, worthless sponges on society is a huge sign, but people think only applies to "real" worthless sponges, not them. Social cleansing of those ill who can't pay for their own care couldn't happen here.

[Voltaire2]

7. Medicare for all.

It is time to put an end to this crap.

[mr_lebowski]

8. F*** these Private Ins. Co LEACHES ... what, like they're the ONLY ONES with the

incredible technological capability of:
1) Taking our money, and
2) Pocketing a shitload of it, and
3) Paying the rest of it to some other entity for services rendered on our behalf.

MY DOG WHAT A VALUABLE, IMPOSSIBLE TO EMULATE SERVICE they provide?!? WHAT MAGIC, WHAT WIZARDRY ALLOWS THIS!?! MY HEAVENS!!!

In fact it's fucking genius if I understand it correctly ...

[Hortensis]

9. A Reuters report, so being spread wide.

[WePurrsevere]

11. Trumpcare Premiums Set To Soar In 2019! There I fixed it for them...

Any mess that occurs since they started to sabotage it is totally on Trump and his Republican corp butt kissers who are doing everything they can to destroy Obama and the American poor and middle class while boosting the greedy top 2% and corporations.

They're so friggin brassy (and betting on their stupid/disinformed voters not catching on in time) that even the a'hole insurance corps admit it according to the second sentence, "Insurers in several states have requested large rate hikes for 2019, with many pointing to steps taken by President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress as the main reasons why."

Vote like your life depends on it... Because it DOES.

[Orangepeel]

12. Trump said the republicans repealed Obamacare

[keithbvadu2]

13. Trumpcare premiums... There is no more Obamacare.

Trump: There is no such thing as ObamaCare anymore (June 2017)

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10141890741 June 2017

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/355658-trump-there-is-no-such-thing-as-obamacare-anymore

[appalachiablue]

21. Thanks, I'll try to add these in the OP up top to clarify...

[Achilleaze]

14. republicans have pissed all over American's health care

repubes are screwing the Americans people again.

[rtracey]

15. yup

So much for the "its not the insurance companies, its Obama" crowd..... I hope every Fuckump voter gets his healthcare raised so far, they need to drop it.....think twice before voting for a racist, narcissistic, sociopathic liar.

[keithbvadu2]

18. This Former GOP Congressman Loathed Obamacare - Until He Lost His Own Coverage

This Former GOP Congressman Loathed Obamacare - Until He Lost His Own Coverage

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/david-jolly-obamacare_us_59529e05e4b02734df2de1be?section=us_politics

[appalachiablue]

23. +10. It was all racist lies...

[Ron Obvious]

16. Nothing new then

My premiums have gone up at this rate every year. Whatever you call this Obamacare/Trumpcare/Romneycare, it was designed by the Heritage Foundation and explicitly prevents the government from reigning in the ridiculously high cost of medicine in this country.

I said the same thing here when Obamacare passed in the first place.

This was never going to be sustainable.

[BigmanPigman]

20. Gee, I guess they want the suicide rat to get even higher!

What fucking fools! I HATE THE GOP and the Moron!!!

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

22. Wait. You mean that the ACA, which the GOP has stabbed repeatedly since it was signed,

is still bleeding?

Big surprise there. The damn thing would have worked if the GOP weren't so fucking evil and have been kneecapping it every chance they get.

[appalachiablue]

24. Sabotaging and damaging is what they do-- unions, public schools, govt. agencies

and employees, other corporations. Destruction to gain advantage-- more money and power. Primitive, simple and evil.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

25. Yep. And it's all under the guise of "smaller gubermint!"

And the people buy it, too.

[appalachiablue]

26. Fox Suckers!

[LenaBaby61]

27. Here's hoping that Dems ...

Are able to CONSISTENTLY AND IN LOCK STEP keep a message out there putting the blame of exploding health premium costs squarely where it belongs: On thuglicans and tRump.

Dems don't get as much air time as thuglicans get but when they're lucky to get on the air, oftentimes they do such a bad job at messing, and they almost never know how to stay on message, and of course thuglicans take advantage of that by putting a message out there FOR Dems saying that THEY said what thuglicans said they said, and then Dems find themselves trying to get out of the verbal quicksand that thuglicans talk them into

I truly despise 99.9% of all thuglicans, but one thing that they can do and do to perfection is that most get on message and most stay on message. Most Dems are the Wile E. Coyote's to thuglicans Road Runner where messaging is concerned.